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Pine Cobble Alumnus Give Students DNA Lesson

Pine Cobble students look at the sample of Tyler DeWitt's DNA (below; taken from cells inside his cheek) after his presentation on Feb. 27.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Before Tyler DeWitt did a TED Talk, before he had a website and a YouTube channel, before he received his Ph.D. in microbiology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, before he taught high school chemistry and biology in both the United States and South Korea, before he was a National Science Foundation fellow, he was just a student at Pine Cobble School.

On Feb. 27, DeWitt returned to the private school from which he graduated in 1997. It wasn't his first time back; he actually spoke at the school's commencement ceremony in 2013 and helped facilitate a STEAM summer camp session in 2018. And as often as he can, he comes back to Pine Cobble to try to make science fun for this generation of students.

And so on Feb. 27, in front of the school's students who were as little as pre-K and kindergarteners and as big as eighth- and ninth-graders, DeWitt bounced around the room to give an energetic science lesson on a subject that could potentially be scary: DNA.

That's deoxyribonucleic acid, not something to do with the "appetite of dinosaurs," as one student suggested.

"You can see why people use the abbreviation," DeWitt said.

Using a combination of slides and audience participation, an energetic DeWitt walked the students through the meaning of DNA. DNA determines a person's traits or characteristics, like eye color or height, or even the characteristics of a plant, like what color flowers it has or how big its leaves are. DNA is found in every part of the body, in the nucleus of cells, he said, showing pictures of cells magnified to give the students a clearer idea of what he was talking about.

"They're so tiny that you need hundreds or thousands to see even one," he said.

The best science, of course, is hands-on, and so DeWitt came prepared to lead the students on an exploration of their own DNA. He wasn't able to do that during his presentation, as they ran out of time, but he demonstrated with his own body and assured the students he was providing their teachers the materials they needed to do the experiment back in their classroom.

This was after he assured the students the experiment would be painless, after one student suggested they would need needles to extract DNA.

"This is silly and fun and it doesn't hurt at all," he said.

Instead of drawing blood, he said, the best place to get DNA samples? A person's cheek, which he said was teeming with cells.

"Your cheeks have cells that are coming off all the time," he said.

And so, he got down to it: He told the students he was going to take a sip of water, swish the water around his mouth for 60 seconds to really loosen those cells, and then spit the water into a cup. Which he did, as the students counted up to 60 to time him. (They tried, but it was actually 48 seconds.)

"Now I have some spit here that's filled with cheeky cells," he said to a chorus of both giggles and "eews" from the students.

Those cheeky cells were transferred to a test tube, a chemical was added to help break open the cells, some regular rubbing alcohol was added to "let the DNA come out of the cells" … and then he let it sit for a few minutes before "long strings" started to "bubble out."

"Those are the DNA," he said.

He carried the test tube around to show all the students, and even held it as the students filed past him out of the room to go home for the day, buzzing about when they would get a chance to do their own swishing and spitting.

"That was amazing," one student said.

Watching them leave the school where he spent so many of his formative years, DeWitt said he comes back to Pine Cobble as much as he can. He said he appreciates the way the school is "all about creative learning," even more so now than he when we was a student in the 1990s.

"It's so cool," he said, adding that he loves seeing the students "excited and engaged" with science. "They have a lot of energy."

Coggins Classic Golf Tournament Helps Bennington Project Independence

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
05:37PM / Saturday, September 05, 2026

This was the tournament's fifth year; it combined with the independence project's annual golf outing this year. 

BENNINGTON, Vt. — Thirty teams hit the green for this year's Coggins Classical Golf tournament, helping Coggins Auto raise money for Bennington Project Independence.

Coggins Auto Marketing Director Valerie Harrington said the fifth annual tournament, which was held on Aug. 28, continued a tradition of community-driven giving. 

Harrington first helped organize the tournament in 2022. She hoped to raise $10,000, which would allow the auto group to leverage a $10,000 Toyota match program. 

The tournament has successfully raised more than $50,000 the last two years, with last year's beneficiary the Cancer Center Community Crusaders. 

This year, it raised more than $50,000 alone, including meeting the Toyota match the third year in a row.

Harrington said she wanted to help the nonprofits in the area, especially those that might get overlooked.

"The idea of it was especially for those nonprofits that are pretty small and don't have really the funds or the means or understanding of how to put on a golf tournament, and to give them an opportunity to get at least $20,000 in funds that year, which is huge for a lot of them, and it's really grown since then," she said.

"There's a lot of nonprofits that are big and big and loud and you know about them, but there are so many more that are like people don't even realize they exist. But what they do is super critical and important to the people in our community."

Local nonprofits submit an application each year explaining their mission and what they need to succeed. Coggins employees narrow the submissions to their top three choices and then let the community decide who they should pick.

Bennington has more than 100 nonprofits, and it can be hard to keep track of them all, but with the tournament, Coggins is able to have many people learn and see the needs in their community and nonprofits they haven't heard about.

"Even if they don't win, they've got in front of thousands of people who read their story and know what they need and know what they do to just spread awareness," Harrington said. "And then by having the community vote on it, then we know for sure what we're doing is what the community wants the most at that given time ...

"The community is saying, 'Hey, we want this nonprofit. We like what they're trying to do. Let's give them help because it's the decision of hundreds to thousands of people rather than just a handful of us.'"

Bennington Project Independence is an adult day service for individuals and families facing the challenges of aging or disability. This year the organization is combining its 13th annual golf tournament with Coggins.

"I think they've affected a lot of people's lives and helped a lot of families because it's an adult day facility for not just the elderly but also special needs," Harrington said. "So what they do every day to keep those folks' lives enriched while giving the family a break or allowing them to go to work and do these things. It's really important."

The 2027 tournament submissions will open in March of 2027.